In recording graphic electrical signals on a moist electrolytic facsimile recording web or paper a scanning electrode in a recording compartment effectively traverses a scanning zone across the paper while applying the signals thereto. The scanning electrode may be a conductor helically carried on a rotating drum as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,417,405 and 3,736,594, or a stylus carried on an orbitting belt as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,879,129. In either case the scanning electrode abrades paper fibers and other recording by products from the paper contaminating the compartment enclosing the scanning electrode. The abrasion problem is particularly acute when the paper is advanced intermittently past the electrode by stopping feed through the recording zone between periods of recording. In this case the paper not only tends to become dry but is also repeatedly abraded along one scanning line of the electrode, and paper chaff is dispersed in the recording compartment, clogging the scanning feed means and the recorder in general and building up on the recording electrode by drying thereon.
It is known to provide a source of humidity in the recording compartment of a facsimile recorder but the object of the present invention is to overcome the chaff dispersion problem in a way which also avoids drying of the recording compartment.